Week 5...still alive!

Good afternoon parents,

What a wonderful week we have had with almost all the beautiful children back in class! It has been great to get back to some sort of normality for our class routines and the children have loved seeing their friends and playing in the sunshine last week. 

A big thank you for my lovely bottle of bubbles and chocolates too! I feel very loved and I am so happy that our online learning platforms worked as well as they did. Of course we could not have done it without you all too! 

A few messages for this week: 

Pick up and drop off 

This has been working really well and the children have been coming in settled, ready to learn with the greater independence in the class during gathering time. Thank you for your patience in the pick up lanes, we are trying to get through the line as quick as we can and it has been great to see some of your friendly faces in the cars! As there are still restrictions with parents coming into school grounds, we have the lovely Mrs. Hughes waiting in the top car park waiting to greet children in the morning so please feel free to drive on through the pick up lane (so you don’t even have to get out of your car 🥰). Hopefully we can have you onsite again soon to share our school with you!

Merit award winner 

Congratulations to James D in our class who was the merit award winner for this week. It was lovely to have this award read out for his peers to hear! Keep an eye on next week’s star citizen for Appreciation!

Faction free dress 
Congratulations to NATURALISTE who was this weeks token winners. They have won the privilege of wearing free dress next Friday! 

Homework

Thank you to those parents who are sending in their child's reading folder each day. The lovely Mrs. Hughes is continuing with our book changing days of Monday and Wednesday. If you have any feedback on how your child is reading, please write it in the reading file pages. Our homework grid is also back for this fortnight. We sent home the homework books on Friday with all of the activities already glued in. If you could please ensure your child brings it back by Friday Week 6 (5th of June) I would be very appreciative. 

Our learning in Week 4

I'm sure by now your children have come home with news of a mysterious animal sighted in Dunsborough. We knew little about this animal but did find out that the man - Greg Normandy sighted an animal that was the size of a dog with orange and white stripes. See below the newspaper article from the Margaret River Region News:

The children have been buzzing with excitement and have been keeping watch down the back of the oval for any mysterious moments in the bush. We then discovered that out in the wild, there are a number of hybrid animals and that have been given new names such as: 

- The Liger (Lion/Tiger) 
- The Carma (Camel/Llama) 
- Wholphin (Whale/Dolphin) 

Luckily, I paid for some very important information from National Geographic, which lead to information about a strange animal, called the Trabbit! Have a read of the information below:  This is the start of our Talk for Write unit into information reports! Get ready for some very creative writing...and animals!


In Maths we have been learning about 2D shapes and face families. The children have loved taking part in our math rotations with involve: 

1. Explicit teaching activity with myself 
2. A hand on practise of skills with Mrs Hughes (fact families this week)
3. Online learning activities via Mathletics and Seesaw 

The children have loved showing what they know and putting their learning into practise. 

Within our reading strategy we have been focusing on the skill of visualising. This is when we create mental images in our head as we read and use our background knowledge of things to help us develop these images. The children loved listening to the description of ‘The Bunyip’ from the story The bumpy of Berkeley’s creek. So many different ideas about what this mystery animal looked like allowed us to compare drawings and focus on features and adjectives that were given to us. 

I hope you have a lovely rest of your weekend an stay safe during this crazy storm that's about to hit!

Miss Prowse

Welcome to Week 4

Good evening parents,

Firstly I'd like to say a big thank you for the support we have received over the past three weeks. It has been a strange and unusual time for everyone and I am so blessed to have such supportive and beautiful parents in our community to help deliver and sustain a home learning program. 🤩

We are lucky enough to have everyone back in our class this week and I am certainly looking forward to the routines going back to normal. This week I will be taking lots of photos of our days as I'm sure you will be interested to see what your child is learning in class as we are only using certain aspects of Seesaw. Please have a look through your child's journal when you have a chance as they have been absolute super stars! 🌟 😊

The children's independence since beginning the term has also been such a great thing to see blossom. Gathering time has been quiet, calm and really allows the children to settle into their learning for the day. I have started to set them little challenges each morning and it has been wonderful to see them helping each other with these challenges. One of my favourite quotes from one of the children was 'reading file, sip and crunch and desk mat...ready to rock and roll'. 🥰

A few messages for this week...

Drop off and Pick ups

Unfortunately we still have been directed by the Western Australian Government that parents are not allowed on school ground. As directed by Admin via text last week, all parents must ONLY use pick up lane on Cape Naturaliste Drive (top car park) or via pick up on Sloan Drive. I know there was some confusion last week as it only changed on Thursday but please DO NOT drive in, park, then get out of your car to get your child from the pick up area. This would really help us as we can keep an eye on the children and make sure they stay safe away from cars driving in and out. We really appreciate your support with this. 🚗


Communication

If you require something important to be seen by me when you child arrives at school, I would really appreciate an old hand written note that you child can hand directly to me 📝. Often emails that are sent after 8.30 am might not get to me as I am teaching the children and do not get a chance to check my emails. I know a couple of parents have asked their child to bring home their jumper or reading file but often, the child forgets from the car to the classroom 🤦‍♀️. A quick note to me can alleviate some of the stress while parents are not allowed on school grounds.


Merit Awards

Merit Awards will begin this week and as we are not allowed to have school assemblies, Mr. Lee and Mr. Torrese will be coming around to each of the classes to present the merit awards🥇. I will be recording the presentation and popping it onto the blog later this week.

Friendology - URStrong

This is the wonderful friendship and social emotional program that we will be starting this term to support the children in helping them make better friends and strengthen and foster healthy relationships. Within the program the children may be starting to use the language of UR Strong: Friendology including: 'Friendship fire', 'Talk it out', 'Quick comebacks' and the 'Friend-o-cycle'. We will be providing some information to parents on the blog as we complete the lessons of the program.

On Friday we will be using our stuffies (stuffed toys/ beanie boos/ teddies) 🧸 to help us be brave and act out different scenarios that we could be faced with in the playground. If you could please make sure your child brings in their stuffy on Friday 22nd on May to participate in this activity, that would be greatly appreciated. Please note that we only require a stuffy that is no more than 30 cm big.

Thank you for your ongoing support, 

Miss Prowse 

Week 3 Information

Good afternoon parents,

I hope you have all had a wonderful full week back at school. I can definitely say I will sleep well tonight 🥱

Thank you to all those parents who have advised the school on whether their child will be attending next week. If your child is attending school next week, can you please ensure that you notify your child's classroom teacher. If you are sending your child back to school, please bring back all workbooks, exercise, scrapbooks and homework folders, as we will be using them at school. A suggestion is to bring it back in a reusable bag so it is easier for your child to carry in on their own from your car. 

Please be aware that parents are still not permitted on school grounds. Please refer to previous email from the school outlining the pick up procedure.

We will be following a similar structure to the sequence of the days as outlined in the Week 3 Learning sequence with some adaptations for increased face to face teaching and support. Please note that due to the increased numbers of children at school, we are not able to provide as many instructional videos via Seesaw. However, we have ensured that many activities were completed in Week 1 and 2 so should seem familiar to your child. Please encourage to read the instructions on worksheets carefully.

Please remember we are available for any extra support you may need via email or the school phone, taking into consideration some times we may not be available immediately due to providing support to children at school.

Below is an electronic copy of the Term 2 Week 3 Learning Schedule. If your child is not attending school, we have been busy making up home learning packs for Week 3, ready to pick up over the weekend. We will send a text to parents who have not notified the school yet that their child is returning on Monday.

Please remember that this is a suggested timetable and is flexible to how your day runs. Even though we have named each activity with a day, it is flexible for when you complete them, however all activities will be removed Friday afternoon to reset new activities for the following week.

Year 1 Week 3 Learning Sequence


We wish you all a Happy Mother's Day 💐

Thanks for your ongoing support,

Miss Prowse

Term 2, Week 2 Learning Sequence

Good afternoon parents,

I hope you enjoyed the first week back to school. I have loved seeing how the children at home are going and have enjoyed seeing some of the children’s faces back at school last week! We thank you for your ongoing support for those of you who are online learning from home and hope you have been enjoying all the teaching videos we have made. I don’t think I’ll be wanting a career in tv anytime soon!

Thank you to all those parents who have advised the school on whether their child will be attending this week.

If you are sending your child back to school, please bring everything that was picked up from school for Week 1 as it also includes all of our week 2 work. 

We have a similar structure for the children’s learning this week and please be assured the children at school are learning the same as the children at home, so no one is disadvantaged in any way.

Please remember we are available for any extra support you may need via email or the school phone, taking into consideration some times we may not be available immediately due to providing support to children at school.

Here is an electronic copy of the Term 2 Week 2 Learning Schedule that you would have found in your home learning packs. Please remember that this is a suggested timetable and is flexible to how your day runs. Even though we have named each activity with a day, it is flexible for when you complete them, however all activities will be removed Friday afternoon to reset new activities for the following week.


Year One, Week 2, Term 2 Learning Sequence

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Miss Prowse